Rumour: SEGA & Retro-Bit working on retro console?

Don't tease me, baby

Ok, so when SEGA and Retro-Bit first announced that they would be collaborating on hardware, a lot of people got excited, perhaps over-excited and started speculating that this would mean a Dreamcast-mini or some other awesome official retro SEGA console is in the works. But, the announcement was quite clear that their partnership would be to do with accessories, such as controllers and cables – as revealed today at CES.

However, the speculation about a Dreamcast-mini, or similar console has resurfaced and this time it is down to things that both SEGA and Retro-Bit have been hinting at on social media and, apparently, what has been said to some people on the floor at CES today.

Firstly, one of the videos that came out today by RGT 85 mentions that Julius, the person at the CES show who sent him the screenshots and information, apparently spoke to the team at Retro-Bit about systems and had this to say: “Retro-Bit is planning to do systems as well.” – See the video below 4:24 mark

Now, as exciting as the thought of that is, that alone wouldn’t necessarily be enough for us to start the rumour mill going. But something else has been going on today with SEGA’s Twitter account, which made us pause for thought.

If you haven’t seen, SEGA Europe posted out a poll today, asking fans to comment on which of SEGA’s home consoles they like playing the most and their favourite games:

How about a fun mid-week nostalgia fuelled poll? Which SEGA home console did you love playing the most? What game was your absolute favourite? #SegaMemories

Again, alone this isn’t necessarily a definite indicator that SEGA and Retro-Bit will be releasing a console. I mean, SEGA puts out polls quite regularly. But then Retro-Bit sends out something of a teaser tweet in response:

Now, we’re not sure – but it sounds like they are referring to the previous tweet from SEGA here. And then, a little later in the day they add another tweet about how “It’s only the beginning for SEGA and Retro-Bit…”

We don’t want people to get all crazy and start expecting a Dreamcast-mini or a Saturn-mini, but from what we’ve heard was (apparently) said on the show floor at CES and with these two tweets from SEGA and Retro-Bit, it’s hard not to imagine that some sort of ‘new-old’ SEGA console might be in the works.

And it makes sense too. SEGA just needs to look at the success Nintendo has seen with the NES and SNES-mini consoles – when done right, they can be huge sellers.

So, for now, until we hear anything more official, we’re going to be treating this as a rumour – but one we really hope will come to fruition.

What do you all think? Are we reading too much into this? And which, if any, SEGA-mini systems would you like to see in store shelves?

I'm the European Editor of SEGA Nerds and co-founder of the original SEGA Nerds website with Chris back in 2004 or 2005 (genuinely can't remember which year it was now!).
I've been a SEGA fan pretty much all my gaming life - though I am also SEGA Nerds' resident Microsoft fanboy (well, every site needs one) and since SEGA went third party, I guess it's now ok to admit that I like Nintendo and Sony too :0)
I'm also the Content Manager of the big data company, Digital Contact Ltd, in the UK: http://digitalcontact.co.uk/company/team/

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